Rabri's 'family touch' for votes

The former CM plays the quintessential bahu (daughter-in-law) to ensure a smooth sailing for herself in the assembly polls.

advertisement

Giridhar Jha

Raghopur | Sonepur

October 27, 2010

UPDATED: October 27, 2010 17:20 IST

Unlike her husband Lalu Prasad, who is harping on the development mantra at his campaigns for the ongoing Bihar polls, Rabri Devi has adopted a different strategy.

The former chief minister is playing the quintessential bahu (daughter-in-law) to ensure a smooth sailing for herself in the elections.

The second longest serving chief minister in the state, next only to the late Srikrishna Singh, Rabri is contesting from two seats - Raghopur and Sonepur. She is hoping to win both the Yadav-dominated constituencies where the third phase of polling will take place on Thursday.

"The people of both the constituencies will ensure my victory in this election," she said at an election rally at Raghopur.

But Rabri is not taking recourse to the usual political rhetoric to woo voters. Once in a while she does mention the "lack of development in Bihar under chief minister Nitish Kumar", but she prefers playing a bahu instead of the leader of the Opposition to strike a chord with her supporters.

In the course of her campaigning, Rabri stops over at several households and enquires about the wellbeing of the families before asking them to vote for her. She even chides rural women when she finds their children lying on muddy floors without clothes.

"Why don't you keep your son clean?" she asked a village woman at Bidupur. "Remember, he will be your Tejaswi," she said while pointing at her youngest son Tejaswi Yadav who accompanies his mother as the "star campaigner" of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD).

Rabri's strategy seems to work in rural areas where women shower gifts such as money, saree, rice and other auspicious items on her. In Bihar villages, gifts are given to married women in accordance with a hoary tradition. At one place, a woman even offered her gold ornaments to Rabri.

"You can see how they are showering their affection on me," an overwhelmed Rabri said. She seems to have realised that her personal rapport with the electorate, rather than the RJD's performance on the development front, will brighten the chances of her victory in the polls.

At many places in Raghopur, people do confront her with the lack of development work during her tenure. In an underdeveloped panchayat, a Dalit woman pointed out the necessity of a bridge in her area. "Do not worry," she reassured her. "This area, too, will be developed. Let our government return to power."

RABRI is undertaking hectic campaign schedules. She arrives in her constituencies in the morning and returns to Patna only after the fall of dusk. She knows that she cannot afford to take it easy in this election.

In the last polls, she had defeated JD-U's Satish Kumar by a margin of about 5,000 votes in the Raghopur constituency. "This time, Satish has emerged stronger because of Nitish's development work," Beni Yadav, a farmer from Rahimapur, said.

The constituency is likely to witness a tough contest among candidates. Some people say this could have prompted Lalu Prasad to field Rabri from two constituencies.

For Lalu, Raghopur is a prestigious seat which Rabri must retain. But he is also aware of the ground realities that it might be the toughest poll battle for her. Lalu is, therefore, not leaving any stone unturned to secure her victory.

He takes his alliance partner Ram Vilas Paswan and Rajput leader Prabhunath Singh to canvass support for her.

"Rabri naari nahin chingari hai (Rabri is a blazing spark)," Lalu said at one of his rallies. He had said Rabri was contesting from two seats because the people of Sonepur wanted her to contest from there as well.

He said that even the sitting party MLA had vacated the seat for her. But Lalu apparently wanted Rabri to contest from a seat more secure than Raghopur.

Lalu obviously wants Rabri to benefit from the development work carried out in the area during his tenure as the railway minister.

He had set up a wagon wheels factory at a place not far from the Sonepur assembly constituency. Moreover, Lalu himself has represented Sonepur in the assembly twice and knows the area quite well.